Relax with a glass of red at a 1st class upper deck table for 2 on a
TGV Duplex from Paris to Barcelona. Speed along the Rhone Valley at 186mph past pretty French villages,
watch for the flamingos on the étangs (lakes) in the South of
France with glimpses of the Mediterranean. Skirt the Pyrenees
to arrive in central Barcelona, 6h25 from Paris. Flying
takes 4-5 disjointed hours with 10 times the
CO2 emissions.

On 15 December 2013, direct
double-decker TGV Duplex high-speed trains
started running from Paris Gare de Lyon to Figueres, Girona & Barcelona at up to
200mph. Paris to Barcelona centre to centre in around 6h25, compared to
almost 5 hours by air once ground transportation, check-in time and airport
security are included. Usually 2 trains per day, this increases to 4
trains a day in summer. Forget flying, chill out with a glass or
two of red wine and enjoy the ride along the scenic Rhone Valley, watch for the
flocks of flamingos on the étangs (lakes) in the south of France, and glimpse
the coast and the Pyrenees before arriving in the centre of Barcelona...

When do bookings open? Bookings
for this route should usually open 120 days
before departure (extended from 92 days in December 2014), although bookings for dates immediately after the timetable changes in mid-June &
mid-December often open late, perhaps as little as 60 days ahead. In addition, they haven't
always maintained the 92/120 days with these trains. I have also seen bookings
open further ahead on the Spanish system (used by
www.loco2.com to book these trains) than on the French system (used by the
other sites mentioned below) so try both!

Which website should you use to
buy tickets? You can buy Paris-Barcelona
TGV tickets online at these websites, they all charge similar prices but some
add a booking fee, some don't and some sites offer seating options, some allocate your seat.
They all issue print-at-home or collect-at-station tickets.

www.loco2.com
-
Recommended site. You can use it wherever you live, overseas cards accepted, no booking fee,
print-at-home tickets. Shows your seat numbers before you confirm and pay,
any seat number greater than 60 is upper deck. Prices in UK pounds.

To buy tickets by phone in the UK,
call International Rail on 0844 248 248 3, lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday.

Click here for
TGV Duplex seat
numbering plans. Seat numbers 11-58 = lower deck, seats 61-128 = upper
deck. Car 1 (= car 11 in the second TGV unit on a 2-unit train) is
usually at the Paris end of the train, although this can't be 100% guaranteed as
the unit could enter service either way round.

SAVE UP TO 47% BY
SPLIT-TICKETING AT PERPIGNAN!
See the video tutorial. In 2014 I didn't see many €59 fares from Paris
to Barcelona, the fare shown was often over €100. in 2015 there seem to be
more cheap tickets available. But if you only see expensive prices on your
date of travel, you can often save
money by buying separate Paris-Perpignan and Perpignan-Barcelona tickets for
travel on the same train. Not always, but it can be worth checking.

For example, on one date I picked in 2014, Paris-Barcelona cost €170, when
splitting the ticket at Perpignan cost €60 for Paris-Perpignan + €29 for
Perpignan-Barcelona = €89 on exactly the same train, a 47% saving. On another
date, €111 Paris-Barcelona became €39 Paris-Perpignan + €29 Perpignan-Barcelona
= €68 when the booking was split.

You'll need to switch seats at Perpignan of course,
as you are unlikely to be given the same seat for both parts of the trip.
Note that these trains often consist of two 8-car TGV units coupled together
between Paris & Perpignan, each with a different train number, only one of which
runs beyond Perpignan to/from Barcelona (usually with car numbers 11-18), the
other unit only operates between Paris & Perpignan (usually with car numbers
1-8). If you're lucky your Paris-Perpignan seats will be in the
Paris-Barcelona unit, and you can simply walk down the train any time to your
new seats, but if you get Paris-Perpignan seats with a different train number
you'll need to nip out onto the platform when the train arrives at Perpignan,
walk forward to the front TGV unit and re-board, you won't be able to walk
through the train.

Do engage brain and think through
the ticket delivery options though - if you get print-at-home tickets, no
problem, but if you get a collect-at-station ticket remember that you cannot
collect it in Barcelona as that's in Spain not France and you won't have time to
fiddle with the French ticket machines in the three minute stop at Perpignan, so
you should collect all tickets in Paris if going south, and collect a northbound
Perpignan-Paris ticket in Paris as you pass through on your outward journey.

Coming from
London, Brussels, Cologne or Amsterdam? You can buy connecting Eurostar tickets
between London & Paris at
www.eurostar.com. Connecting Thalys tickets between Amsterdam,
Cologne, Brussels & Paris can be bought at
www.b-europe.com.

How to buy onward train tickets within Spain:
Onward trains from Barcelona to
Madrid, Valencia, Alicante, Granada, Seville & Malaga can be booked at the Spanish
Railways website
www.renfe.com or if you
have any payment problems,
www.raileurope-world.com
instead, as they have a link to Renfe's system,
same prices and same print-at-home tickets but with a small €4 fee.

The Paris to Barcelona trains are impressive TGV Duplex double-decker high-speed trains.
They operate at up to 186mph (300km/h) on the Sud-Est high-speed line between
Paris and Nimes, and up to 199mph (320km/h) on the new high-speed line between
Perpignan and Barcelona.

You board the train at the lower
level through a wide sliding external door into a small entrance area at
one end of the lower deck. Here, there's a toilet and the door into the
lower deck seating area. A wide, short & easy flight of stairs leads from
the entrance area to a landing at one end of the upper deck, with an upstairs
toilet and a door to the upstairs seating area. You walk
along the train from car to car at the upper level. There are luggage
racks both upstairs and downstairs, at the coach ends and between the seats.
Seat numbering plan for the Paris-Barcelona
TGV Duplex here.

There are power sockets for
laptops and mobiles at every seat and there are baby-changing facilities and
designated spaces for passengers in wheelchairs.

When booking, you can choose a seat on either upper or lower
decks if you use
either
www.capitainetrain.com
or
www.loco2.com
or book by phone, but not if you book at any of the Rail Europe sites which
assign your seat. If you have problems with stairs or very heavy luggage,
the lower deck might be best. But for the best views (over the top of the
occasional sound barrier along the high speed lines!), definitely choose an
upper deck seat. For couples in first class, an upper deck club duo
face-to-face table-for-two is
easily the best option, selectable at
www.capitainetrain.com.

1. Paris
Gare de Lyon & the Train Bleu restaurant... The train to Barcelona leaves from
the magnificent Gare de Lyon in central Paris. I recommend booking an
earlier Eurostar and having lunch or at least a drink in the bar at the
wonderful Train Bleu
restaurant (pictured above right) inside the Gare de Lyon before
catching your train to Spain.

2. The Rhone Valley...
The train soon joins the high-speed line and accelerates smoothly to 186mph
through the Paris suburbs, soon emerging into open country. The train
powers down the rural Rhone Valley, past pretty French villages with picturesque
churches and the occasional castle. On a clear day you can see the
snow-capped French Alps in the far distance to the left, and the dark line of
the Massif central mountains on the far side of the valley to the right.

3. Béziers...
The train calls at Nimes and Montpelier, then passes non-stop through
Béziers station. As the train crosses the River Orb just west of
the station, look right for a great view of
Béziers' 13th century cathedral.

Above left, lunch from
the cafe-bar, a magret de canard avec pommes de terre and some red wine
from the cafe-bar. By all means bring your own picnic and bottle
of wine!

7. The Fort de Salses...
Just before Perpignan,
the train passes by the
impressive Fort de Salses on the right, a 15th-century Catalan
fortress captured in 1642 and French-held ever since, see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_de_Salses.

8. Mt Canigou & the
Pyrenees... One of the highest
peaks in the mighty Pyrenees, the 2,784m (9,137 feet) high Mt Canigou dominates
the skyline on the right all the way from Perpignan to Girona, see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canigou.

9. Barcelona Sants
station... A modern station in
central Barcelona, with plenty of taxis, and a metro to all parts of
Barcelona. There are
left luggage
lockers (consigna) and a Sala Club 1st class lounge which you
can use if you have a 1st class ticket for the TGV for up to 2 hours
before it departs, although not on arrival.
More information
about Barcelona Sants.

X-ray check when boarding:
At Spanish stations including Barcelona Sants, there's a quick X-ray
check of all baggage before you can go onto the high-speed platforms,
which includes boarding a northbound TGV to France. The photo
above left shows the X-ray machines at the access point to platforms 1-6
at Barcelona Sants. There are no metal detectors, so you can carry
what you like on your person, it's only your baggage that's checked.
Make sure that any (perfectly legal) penknives, corkscrews etc are in your pockets not your
baggage so don't get scanned, to avoid a jobsworth refusing to allow them on, as
happened to one passenger.
There is no such check at any French station, where there is free & easy
access to the train.
More information about Barcelona Sants
station.

Watch
the video...

Barcelona to Paris by TGV Duplex.

The video takes you on a journey by TGV Duplex from Barcelona to Paris, showing
the train & scenery...

Should you go 1st or 2nd class? 2nd class is perfectly
comfortable so there's no need to pay for 1st class unless you really want to
and can afford it. There is no food or drink included in the 1st class
fare, so it's just the extra space and legroom that you're paying for, plus use
of the first class lounge on departures from Barcelona. On the other hand,
first class seats are arranged 2+1 across the car width, so there are 'solo'
seats and tables-for-two in 1st class as well as the dual-side-by-side and
tables-for-four which you'll also find in 2nd class where seats are arranged 2+2
across the car width. Prices vary in both classes, so sometimes 1st class
is little more (and can even cost the same or less) than 2nd class, so see what
prices you get for each class before you decide.

Upper deck seats are recommended. Whichever class you choose, I recommend an upper deck seat on the TGV Duplex for the best
views of the scenery. You are given the choice if you book at
www.loco2.com*
&
www.capitainetrain.com, but not at most other sites. (* = Loco2
temporarily doesn't give you a choice of deck, but it shows you which deck
you're allocated before you confirm and pay. If you get a lower deck seat,
simply run the enquiry again until you get an upper deck one!). You cannot
select forward-facing seats, but car 1 (or in the second TGV unit, car 11) is
usually at the Paris end of the train and you can work out which way seats face
from the seat numbering plan.
These trains usually leave Paris as two TGV Duplex units coupled together.
Cars 1-8 at the rear are uncoupled at Perpignan, cars 11-18 up front continue to
Barcelona.

The best place to wait for the train in Paris: I highly recommend
using the bar or having a meal at the celebrated
Train Bleu
restaurant inside the Gare de Lyon (Hall 1). Opened in 1903, it's
a listed national monument, and an experience in itself. You can
reserve a table for lunch or dinner online at
www.le-train-bleu.com.

First class lounge in Barcelona: When leaving Barcelona with a 1st class
TGV ticket to France, you can use the
Sala Club (first class lounge) at Barcelona Sants station for up to 2 hours
before your departure. This has complimentary snacks, tea, coffee,
soft drinks and beer. However, there's no access to any departure lounge in Paris.

Boarding the train in Paris: There's
free-and-easy access to the train in Paris, you can just wander
from the street or the metro or taxi rank into the station, glance up at the
departure boards to check the platform number, walk onto the platform, press the
door open button and board the train any time up to when
they close the doors, a minute or two before departure. The actual platform
number may not be posted until 20 minutes before departure, but the departure
boards at the Gare de Lyon will tell you whether it will leave from Hall 1
(blue, platforms A to N) or Hall 2 (yellow, platforms 5-23) so you can wait on
the right concourse close to where the train will leave. The more historic
concourse with platforms A to N and the famous
Train Bleu Restaurant is
Hall 1, the newer concourse accessed along platform A or through the ticket hall
is Hall 2. If you really think you need a station plan, you can find one at
www.gares-en-mouvement.com.

Boarding the train in Barcelona & other Spanish stations: In
Spanish stations
there's a very quick (2 minute) baggage scan when entering the departures
area, that's what the Spanish do for all their high-speed trains. So
don't cut it too fine when starting your journey in Spain.

Luggage: Luggage works on these Paris-Barcelona TGV trains exactly as it does
on any other European train. To us Europeans, it's obvious, but as
overseas visitors worry obsessively about luggage, I'll spell it out. For
all practical purposes you can take what you want onto the train, nobody will
weigh it or measure it unless it's truly unreasonable, your bags aren't checked
in or anything, you simply take your bags on board the train with you and stick
them on the racks above your seat, or between the seats, or at the car ends.
There are racks both upstairs & downstairs, and the stairs to the upper deck are
shallow and wide enough to make taking bags upper deck pretty easy. It's
as simple as that... No luggage worries!

Taking bikes: Bikes are carried on these TGVs free of charge as
ordinary luggage if they are semi-dismantled and placed in a zip-up bike bag not
exceeding 120cm x 90cm. See the
Taking bikes on trains
page.

The overnight Elipsos
trainhotels between Paris & Barcelona, and Paris & Madrid, were sadly
discontinued from 15 December 2013. However, it's still possible to
travel overnight between Paris and Barcelona in either direction, using a
French Intercité de Nuit couchette train
between Paris and either Perpignan or Latour de Carol, and a connecting
daytime train to or from Barcelona.

Spending the night on an
overnight train only saves a couple of hours over taking a morning TGV, as
the 07:15 TGV from Paris arrives in Barcelona around 13:30, and both the
following overnight options arrive around 11:30. But it saves a hotel
bill and makes an interesting contrast to the TGV journey - and it can also
be cheaper if you can't find any cheap fares for the TGV!

The route
via Latour (option 2 below) crosses the Pyrenees and is very scenic, both for the last hour
of the journey south to Latour (at least in summer, when it's light) and
between Latour and Barcelona.

Option 1: Use the
overnight Intercité de Nuit couchette
train between Paris Austerlitz & Perpignan, booked online at
www.loco2.com.
Have breakfast in Perpignan. Then take the first TGV of the day from
Perpignan to Barcelona Sants, also booked in advance at
www.loco2.com.
You can leave Paris around 22:00 and arrive in Barcelona around 11:30.
Northbound, you can leave Barcelona Sants around 18:25 and arrive Paris
around 07:30, you'll find exact times in either direction
in this section on the London to Spain page.

Option 2, a scenic ride
through the Pyrenees: Use the overnight
Intercité de Nuit couchette train
between Paris Austerlitz & Latour de Carol, deep in the Pyrenees, booked
online at
www.loco2.com.
Then use a Spanish local train between Latour de Carol and Barcelona Sants,
no reservation necessary or possible, simply buy this ticket on board the
train for around €11. You can leave Paris around 22:00 and arrive in
Barcelona around 11:35. Northbound, you can leave Barcelona Sants
around 15:10 and arrive Paris around 07:30, you'll find exact times in
either direction
in this section on the London to Spain page. If you have any
trouble booking the Paris-Barcelona TGV, or if prices on that route are
sky-high, this might be a useful alternative!

...or in the heart of the old city, for a longer
stay...

For a longer stay, get a hotel in the old quarter, perhaps on or near La Rambla
itself, such as the following hotels with good or great reviews:
Hotel DO Plaça Reial (5-star, fabulous, around £200+),
Hotel Espana (4-star, around £190, one of Barcelona's most historic &
well-known hotels in a quiet location just off La Rambla),
Hotel MonteCarlo (4-star),
Hotel Jazz
(3-star with roof-top pool, from around £160 per night),
Hotel Catalonia Portal de l'Angel (3-star
with outdoor swimming pool, Gothic quarter, around £130 for a double),
Hotel Curious (2-star, 50m from Las Ramblas, from around £90 for a double)

For something special...
There's the famous & flashy
Paris Ritz in the Place Vendôme of course (over
€500 a night) or the similarly-priced
Le Meurice, but if you want a really special hotel for a
luxury break or romantic weekend and can afford to splurge
around €290 a night, I'd recommend the small, sumptuous
and intimate
L'Hotel. It's on the bohemian left bank, walking
distance from the Seine, the Ile de la Cité & Notre Dame.
Oscar Wilde spent the last days of his life here in room 16,
and the hotel has been used by many famous people from
Sinatra to Mick Jagger. Rooms are on the cosy side,
but they are beautifully decorated and have character that
other hotels lack.